After all, Zhou Yuwen was a reasonably well-known writer. The previous promotions had already given him a certain level of fa in the university town. Now, with his piano playing and original song, his title as the number one prodigy was firmly established.
Previously, when Zhou Yuwen was referred to as a young writer.
So of the more arrogant and talented university students had shown a bit of disdain, thinking to themselves, 'What number one prodigy? Isn't he just writing male fantasy novels?'
'Exactly, it's not like we haven't read his novels. They're complete male-oriented wish-fulfillnt trash that doesn't respect won. Where in the world is there a girl like Shen Xiaoyu? It's pure pandering to n!'
To be honest, web novels were ultimately a niche market. Zhou Yuwen had only broken into the mainstream because he made so much money, but that didn't change the inherent limitations of the dium.
There would always be so people who felt that those who wrote web novels were nothing special.
But it wasn't until Zhou Yuwen's performance of "Fleet of Ti" ca out that his popularity reached an entirely new level.
'No way, man, are you seriously this talented?!'
Less than an hour after the New Year's Eve gala ended, videos of Zhou Yuwen playing the piano and singing were being reposted everywhere. Furthermore, because the university town encompassed over a dozen universities, so students would draw comparisons on the forums—pointing out a girl from one university who sang beautifully, or a student from another showing off their violin skills.
However, when it ca to the competition among the galas across the university town this year, the students from Zhou Yuwen's university proudly flocked to other university forums to show off:
"Hah! With all due respect, everyone here is trash! Just look at the original song by our school's genius writer!"
Well, posts like that would inevitably draw a lot of hate toward Zhou Yuwen, but it wasn't like he could control what they did.
Upon seeing these posts, the imdiate reaction from other universities was anger. They thought, 'Didn't your university just produce so guy who writes male fantasy novels?'
'What's there to be so smug about!'
'An original song, my foot!'
'Let's see just how much of a fool you make of yourself!'
'I'm a literature club president, for crying out loud!'
'Holy crap!'
Students from various colleges who had initially clicked on the posts with the intention of picking a fight were left utterly dumbfounded after watching the video.
'This song is written way too well!'
'What is this about blushing faces and red eyes!'
'The parallel structure is perfect, it has a unique charm, and what was that about a beautiful rumor!'
'The entire lyric sheet is not only incredibly catchy but also perfectly rhyd!'
'Most importantly, the lyrics are overflowing with genuine emotion!'
'He's an absolute genius!'
"Oh my god, look at the school forum quickly! That guy who wrote novels actually knows how to write songs too!"
"That's the boss of the company where we work part-ti! We even saw him at the exhibition center back then!"
"Oh, I rember that guy being pretty handso!"
Nanjing University of the Arts was an institution dedicated to the arts, and there were naturally so n and won who fancied themselves talented and wrote their own songs. But compared to Zhou Yuwen, they fell drastically short.
The girls there all had long, slender legs. It was currently nine o'clock, and the girls in the dormitory were lounging around in just their underwear, showing off their legs while scrolling through videos.
One of them stumbled upon Zhou Yuwen's video and let out an involuntary gasp of amazent, calling everyone over to look.
Consequently, three or four girls in the room all gathered around.
At that very sa mont, across several universities, countless dormitories were listening to this exact sa song.
"Shiqi! Shiqi! Your high school classmate is amazing! He doesn't just write novels, he can write songs too!"
In a certain dormitory at Nanjing University, Li Shiqi's roommate scread excitedly at her as she walked in from the library, looking completely confused.
"?" Li Shiqi had no idea what she was talking about.
However, she was forcefully grabbed by her roommate, dragged over to a stool, and urged to hurry up and watch the video.
'What is this?'
'Zhou Yuwen?'
In the video, Zhou Yuwen was playing the piano.
She had to admit, the sight of Zhou Yuwen earnestly playing the piano was undeniably handso. And then ca the mont he opened his mouth to sing.
Li Shiqi's roommates were already so excited they were practically talking nonsense, chattering on about how incredibly talented her classmate was.
"Yeah, this song is so beautiful!"
"Shiqi, I saw the comnts below saying that Zhou Yuwen and that Zheng Yanyan broke up. I wonder if it's true?"
"It's true! I heard their school forum completely blew up over this! Word is that the girl was fooling around with another man?"
"Are you serious? With an excellent guy like Zhou Yuwen, she still went looking for another guy?"
"It's true. This song seems to have been written for her. Look at how heartbroken Zhou Yuwen sounds singing it. Sigh, why can't I et a good man like him!"
anwhile, the forum had already exploded into an all-out war.
Zheng Yanyan had directly posted from her main account, declaring that Zhou Yuwen had written this song for her.
But then there was another girl claiming to be Zhou Yuwen's high school girlfriend, who stated with absolute certainty that the song was written for her!
The two of them were arguing fiercely, neither willing to back down!
The netizens, however, were quite perceptive. They comnted that the song probably contained traces of both of them.
"Why would you break up with such a good man like Zhou Yuwen?"
"Exactly, you don't have to love him, but please don't hurt him!"
Previously, people weren't entirely sure whether Zhou Yuwen and Zheng Yanyan had officially broken up. But after this song ca out, Zheng Yanyan firmly insisted it was written for her.
She had previously denied the rumors of their breakup.
But if she wanted to lay claim to this song, she had to admit to breaking up with Zhou Yuwen. Even if she didn't admit it, there was no hiding the fact that they had a major conflict.
And the focal point of their conflict was a boy nad Chang Hao.
Before, it was only their own school forum discussing the drama between Zheng Yanyan and Chang Hao. Now, the entire university town knew that Zheng Yanyan and Zhou Yuwen had broken up.
And the news was spreading further by the minute.
When Zhou Yuwen sang "Fleet of Ti," his performance was exceptionally soulful. Combined with the fact that it was a deeply sorrowful love song, the girls who listened couldn't help but develop a vague sense of affection and a good impression of him.
'Just how deeply was a boy who could write such lyrics hurt by those girls?'
'Sigh, why couldn't an excellent boy like that date
instead?'
'If he dated , I would definitely never let down a guy like that.'
"Shiqi! Your high school classmate just went through a breakup! Aren't you going to go comfort him!?"
"Yeah, Shiqi, I feel like Zhou Yuwen has a pretty good impression of you. He helped you find a part-ti job before and even brought you back to school. You should at least go comfort him!"
Li Shiqi's roommates had a very deep impression of Zhou Yuwen. Moreover, from the way Li Shiqi usually paid attention to him, they could tell that she actually harbored feelings for him. But whenever they used to tease her about it...
Li Shiqi would always say, "He already has a girlfriend."
Well, wasn't this perfect?
Now Zhou Yuwen was single.
'Li Shiqi! You need to put in so effort!'
'Exactly, you're so pretty, you can't possibly go through all of university without dating anyone!'
Her roommates surrounded her, chattering away one after another, but Li Shiqi remained completely composed. She simply sat there quietly, listening to Zhou Yuwen sing the entire song.
Watching his soulful expression in the video, Li Shiqi felt a bit dazed. She admitted to herself that she liked Zhou Yuwen, but he was now a famous prodigy and so sort of genius novelist.
'What do I amount to?'
'With so many girls chasing after him, how could he possibly fall for ?'
After finishing the video, under the expectant gazes of her roommates, Li Shiqi simply replied, "Let it go. I still have a lot of things to do, I don't have ti for love."
"?"
"Hold on, Shiqi, what could you possibly have to do?" "Exactly, you're already first in class. Zhou Yuwen is so wealthy; if you got together with him, you wouldn't even need to go out and work odd jobs anymore."
Before one of the roommates could finish speaking, another yanked on her sleeve.
At that mont, the girl suddenly realized she had misspoken.
Li Shiqi rely maintained a calm expression as she set down her backpack and went to the restroom to wash up.
Perhaps this was the real reason Li Shiqi didn't try to get close to Zhou Yuwen.
'I have absolutely nothing. Staying by Zhou Yuwen's side would probably just be a burden to him.'
Li Shiqi thought, 'If only my family wasn't so poor.'
'If only my mom and dad were both still around.'
'If that were the case, at the very least, I could bravely pursue love.'
Li Shiqi entered the restroom and closed the door behind her.
Then, she slid off her faded jeans.
She only owned three sets of clothes, washing and rotating them regularly. She had no short skirts and shorts or any stylish outfits ant for showing off—only long pants.
Perhaps for this very reason, keeping them covered had left Li Shiqi's legs exceptionally pale. Up until now, it was likely that no boy had ever laid eyes on her flawless legs.
She sat down on the toilet.
From outside, she could faintly hear her roommates' whispers.
They seed to be scolding the girl who hadn't been good with words.
However, Li Shiqi didn't care about any of that. She pulled out her phone, found the video on the school forum, plugged in her earphones, and quietly listened to it.
While listening, she also scrolled through the text comnts.
'Zheng Yanyan?'
'Is she the one who hurt Zhou Yuwen?'
Li Shiqi had never considered dating Zhou Yuwen. First of all, she felt she simply didn't have the ti for love. Secondly, she believed there was no way Zhou Yuwen would be interested in her.
However, seeing Zhou Yuwen sing this song, she figured that he must be feeling terrible after the breakup.
So, after a mont of hesitation, Li Shiqi found Zhou Yuwen on WeChat: "Are you there?"
It was almost nine-thirty when Li Shiqi sent the ssage.
At this ti, Zhou Yuwen was following Liu Jing and her daughter to a dinner gathering with the university leaders.
Originally, this dinner was strictly for university officials. But given Liu Jing's status, Li Ru naturally wanted to invite her along, and as a result, Zhou Yuwen and Jiang Xinyi were brought into the fold.
Everyone seated was practically middle-aged, an entire generation older than Zhou Yuwen, so naturally, there wasn't much for him to say.
Zhou Yuwen simply sat there quietly, listening to Liu Jing exchange pleasantries with the other leaders. He just ate his food and drank his water as expected.
He couldn't even drink any alcohol.
'I'm just a university student, what business do I have drinking alcohol?'
Of course, a certain potbellied university official did laugh and ask Zhou Yuwen if he wanted a drink, saying, "How can a young man not drink?"
However, Zhou Yuwen politely declined, stating that he didn't know how to drink.
"As a young man, how can you not know how to drink?" the potbellied official questioned.
Fortunately, Liu Jing was there to shield him.
Liu Jing truly treated Zhou Yuwen like her own child.
Mainly, it was because Zhou Yuwen was incredibly well-mannered.
Take, for example, when they were taking the elevator upstairs earlier.
Over a dozen people had cramd into the elevator. Aside from the university leaders, there were also other bystanders.
When Zhou Yuwen entered the elevator, his first instinct was to pull Jiang Xinyi close to his side, even extending his arm to act as a barrier between her and the crowd.
It was as if he was specifically shielding Jiang Xinyi.
Seeing this, Liu Jing was genuinely satisfied.
It wasn't just Liu Jing who was pleased; even Jiang Xinyi felt an unusual ripple in her heart.
Truthfully, this ripple had already started forming the mont she learned of Zhou Yuwen's breakup. Now, after interacting with him in various settings, Jiang Xinyi's heart was wavering.
With his tall and sturdy fra, Zhou Yuwen had protected Jiang Xinyi in the elevator, his gaze fixed straight ahead.
From Jiang Xinyi's position, a slight upward glance had t the sight of Zhou Yuwen's Adam's apple.
This feeling of being protected by soone was sothing You Changjin could never give her.
Even though she had dated You Changjin, whether it was dopamine or endorphins, there had never been any excess secretion of either. They weren't really in a relationship; they were just passing ti together, and maybe not even that.
But being with Zhou Yuwen felt completely different.
When she was around him, Jiang Xinyi felt a sense of longing.
Her eyes flickered, the gaze she directed at him already betraying her wavering emotions.
This dinner was utterly dispensable as far as Zhou Yuwen was concerned. The only reason he had co wasn't to give face to the university leaders, but rather to show respect to Liu Jing and her daughter.
Of course, attending this dinner did serve to make his face known to the leadership. As the only student from the college at the table, and with Liu Jing backing him up...
Those leaders naturally took the initiative to strike up conversations with him, telling him to co to them if he ever faced any issues.
Soone asked if he was starting a business in Pioneer Park.
Another ntioned that they knew people in the music association, adding, "Young man, you're quite gifted in music. Have you not sold the copyright for this song yet?"
"I can help you get in touch to register the copyright."
Liu Jing was surprisingly attentive to this matter, proactively asking the official if it would be too much trouble.
"This is indeed a great song, it deserves to be promoted," Liu Jing remarked.
Li Ru also nodded in agreent.
Seeing that the two highest-ranking 'officials' at the table had spoken in his favor...
The others naturally joined in with a chorus of praise.
Zhou Yuwen was accustod to these kinds of gatherings. Regardless of how much they flattered him, he simply ate more and spoke less. The only person at the table who could be considered his peer was Jiang Xinyi.
Therefore, whenever they had sothing to say, Zhou Yuwen and Jiang Xinyi would chat privately.
Jiang Xinyi was quite direct. As soon as they had taken their seats, she asked him in a low voice, "Did you really break up with Zheng Yanyan?"
Zhou Yuwen couldn't even be bothered to answer this question anymore. He replied, "You already know, so why ask?"
Hearing this, Jiang Xinyi felt inexplicably pleased, yet she pouted and said, "Hmph, you brat, you didn't even tell
you broke up."
Zhou Yuwen simply rolled his eyes at her.
The two of them continued exchanging whispers beneath the table, while up above, the group of adults naturally carried on proposing toasts and passing glasses.
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